Fire severely damages Edneyville cabin

An Edneyville home built in the 1890s was set on fire by a lightning strike Saturday afternoon,

By JOEY MILLWOODTimes-News Staff Writer

EDNEYVILLE -- Linda Wasielewski could only shake her head as she stood in front of her two-story cabin at 171 Holland Lane and watched smoke billowing from the roof.

The house, built in the 1890s, was set on fire by a lightning strike Saturday afternoon, said Robert Griffin, deputy chief of Edneyville Fire and Rescue. After looking at the electrical panel and talking to neighbors, lightning was determined to be the official cause, he said.

Wasielewski, an Isle of Palms, S.C., resident, rented the house to two tenants who were not at home when the fire started. The house, she said, was moved from Tennessee in pieces in 1982 and put back together on the 4-acre piece of property in Edneyville. Wasielewski has owned the property for the past eight years.

The fire, Griffin said, destroyed 85 percent of the home's contents. As the smoke continued to rise from house on Saturday afternoon, firefighters determined the structural damage to be somewhere between 40 and 50 percent, Griffin added.

The fire department got the call at 3:15 p.m. and found heavy smoke.

“It did burn through the floor between the first and second floor,” Griffin said.

The firefighters peeled the red, metal roof back so that they could get to the fire. By 5 p.m., the fire was out and hoses were being rolled up. The smoke lingered as the owners continued to stand, look and think about the cabinets and other things they remodeled in the house.

The interior was original to the home that was brought to Hendersonville 31 years ago. And despite the fact that she and her husband, Bob Peterson, had insurance, the cabin is almost irreplaceable, Wasielewski said.

“I don't think you can redo it,” she said. “It's a piece of history. We're heartbroken.”